One word describes this game, and that is lucky. Actually scrap that it's two words, F***ing lucky.
I have been a firm backer of Rafa over recent weeks when he has come under fire, but todays decisions from the gaffer just have no rational explanation. He took off the two main attacking threats on the pith, Gerrard & Benayoun, whilst leaving on Mascherano & Sissoko who don't really offer a lot going forward. I can understand that they may have been tired from the internationals, but you make those sort of changes when you're winning, not chasing a win in a derby match. The decision to wait until the 87th minute to bring on Pennant also left me dumbfounded, what real difference could he make at that point? We got off the hook here big time, and I just hope Rafa learns from mistakes made & doesn't repeat them.
As for the players themselves, in goal Reina didn't really have a lot to do. He didn't have a chance with the own goal, but apart from one dodgy punch near the end he got everything else pretty much right. Carragher I have to admit was a very lucky lad, could easily have conceded a penalty at the end and could well have picked up two yellows for his constant arguing if it had been a harsher ref, in my eyes Gerrard should have been doing more as captain to stop him. Hyypia was desperately unlucky with the own goal, it was one of those ones that could've gone absolutely anywhere, and apart from that had a very good game. His aerial prescence certainly saved our skins more than once or twice at the back and showed for me why he's still an important member of our squad. Finnan as ever was Mr reliable, a couple of brilliant saving challenges and on current form he also seems to be our best crosser of the ball. The weak link in the defence for me was Riise, and why the hell he played the full 90 minutes I don't know. His passing was poor, and for the goal he should have been closing down a lot quicker. There were two incidents that really stood out for me though, firstly after about 10 minutes when Hyypia conceded a free kick in a dangerous position. The Everton player (I think it was Osman) was bursting down the right where Riise should be defending, yet it was Sissoko & Hyypia that were having to cover as Riise was still making his way back from the opposition half. The other incident was at the opther end of the pitch towards the end of the game when we were chasing the win, Kuyt played a through ball that was slightly ahead of him and he made no effort to get on the end of it. The ball was asking a lot of him, but he could've slid in & played it out for a throw instead of letting it roll out for a goal kick, he showed no desire to get to it.
In midfield I think we got better as the game went on, but in the first half we had no thrust from the middle & our wing play was non-existent. Benayoun was the only midfielder to make any sort of impression before the break & we just looked devoid of ideas. Come the second half things improved, thanks in no small part to the fact that Gerrard actually decided to start playing then. He did very well for the penalty, Hibbert was tugging on his shirt almost as far back as the halfway line, but Stevie stayed on his feet until he'd made it into the box. There were memories of Istanbul for me, Gerrard had the same grin on his face as he'd had that night when he finally went down in the box, he knew it was a penalty & I think it was very clever play that won it. I still don't see why Mascherano played, he'd travelled halfway round the world & played 180 mintues of football already this week, and it showed. I can only assume it was due to Alonso not being ready, but I still don't think he should've featured in this game. Sissoko was just Sissoko, we all know what to expect from him now, win the ball back brilliantly then give it away, I really don't think he should play unless partnered with Alonso who seems to be the only one who always makes himself available for the easy ball.
Up front Voronin managed to get every other aspect of his game right apart from the bit that really matters for a striker. He did some great tracking back but that's not his main job, a striker's there to score or create goals andin that he failed miserably. Kuyt faired a little better, whilst not having many clear cut chances himself he created well for others, and fair play for having the bottle to take the first penalty, not easy in such a big game when you haven't scored for a while.
All in all as I said at the start we were lucky today, but it's another three points notched up and we're still in contention. I doubt todays performance will have boosted anyone's confidence much though, and for once I actually put this down to the manager rather than the players as I have in recent weeks.
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